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Cathay Pacific said it expects to stop burning cash in the second half as the group narrowed its losses and delivered its most positive outlook in years after the city shortened its quarantine requirements. In results published on Wednesday, the Hong Kong-listed airline reported a loss of HK$5b ($637m) for the first half of 2022, compared with a HK$7.6b loss over the same period last year and said it was optimistic about the outlook for the rest of the year. “On the expectation that borders will reopen, our teams have been actively preparing to meet the rising global demand for travel,” Cathay’s chair Patrick Healy told reporters. The company is confident that its “airlines and subsidiaries will see a stronger second-half than first-half performance”. Cathay said it expects “positive cash flow” in the second half of 2022, while HSBC analysts said they believe the airline returned to profit in July. In March, Cathay reported that it was burning up to HK$1.5bn a month because of strict quarantine rules for international travellers. The airline has forecast that by the end of the year, passenger traffic will rise to 25% of pre-pandemic levels and cargo capacity to 65%. As of June, it was operating at only 11% of pre-pandemic passenger capacity and 56 per cent of cargo traffic. Higher cargo revenues have been an important factor in its improved performance. Cathay also been suffering from an exodus of pilots prompted by the tough quarantine rules and is looking to hire 4,000 staff including pilots by next year.<br/>

Malaysia Airlines is poised to announce a deal next Monday to acquire 20 Airbus A330neo wide-body jets, industry sources said on Wednesday. CE Izham Ismail said in June the airline was nearing a decision on replacing its earlier-model A330 fleet, and Reuters last month reported that the upgraded A330neo had been selected as the preferred model. The deal to replace 15 A330-300s and six A330-200s is likely to involve leasing around half of the upgraded A330neo planes and purchasing the rest directly from Airbus, said two of the sources, who were not authorised to speak publicly. Malaysia Airlines and Airbus declined to comment. Malaysia Airlines has Airbus A330s and A350s in its long-range fleet and had placed a provisional order for competing Boeing (BA.N) 787s in 2017, but let the deal lapse. The fleet upgrade comes amid signs of a pick-up in demand for wide-body jets after a lengthy downturn.<br/>

The black and white security camera footage is clear enough to make out a hooded figure on a tree-lined Sydney street. The person is energetically hurling -- almost like a baseball pitcher -- something at a house just before 2 a.m. on July 12. Daylight reveals that the A$19m ($13m) harborside home of Qantas Airways CEO Alan Joyce has been pelted with eggs and toilet paper. Lauded just over a year ago for bringing Australia’s iconic airline through the pandemic stronger than ever, Joyce has been knocked from his pedestal by its aftermath. The challenges of restarting travel are overwhelming Qantas and threatening to tarnish the legacy of one of aviation’s longest-serving and highest-profile leaders. A combination of staff shortages and flight delays has given Qantas the title of Australia’s least-reliable carrier, with the prank on his home just the tip of a wave of vitriol -- much of it targeted at Joyce -- that’s intensifying with every canceled route and lost suitcase. Emboldened by the public anger, some of Joyce’s oldest foes in Australia’s union movement sense they might finally have their man. It’s a stunning reversal for Joyce, 56, who won the devotion of shareholders by resurrecting Qantas twice in less than a decade through a series of ruthless job and spending cuts. He’s perhaps the nearest thing in Australia to a celebrity CEO. None of that seems to matter to passengers who’ve endured hours-long check-in queues, especially during peak holiday periods, or slept rough at foreign airports after flight delays. Qantas canceled 8.1% of domestic services in June, the latest available government data show. Some luggage has gone missing for weeks. Joyce has been at the helm of Qantas for so long -- almost 14 years -- that he’s seen as the face of its current ailments. For years the industry’s golden boy, Joyce is now hostage to the travel chaos that’s dogging most airline CEOs, with his plan to stay on until at least the end of 2023 at risk of turning into a hastier exit.<br/>

Qantas has extended its minimum time for outbound international connections from 60 minutes to 90 minutes, as another strategy to reduce mishandled and missing baggage for customers. The new change will come into effect from 21 August and apply to all Qantas new and existing bookings that include a domestic connection ahead of an outbound international flight. Passengers who already have a booking that no longer meets to 90-minute minimum connection time will be contacted and moved on to an earlier flight at no extra cost, Qantas said. The move has been made in an effort to give staff on the ground more time to move bags onto flight connections, and reduce the number of cases of missing bags for overseas travellers, after the airline’s average rate of mishandled bags rose to 9 in 1000. “While there are lots of good reasons why, the simple fact is our operational performance hasn’t been up to the standard our customers are used to, or that we expect of ourselves,” said Qantas Group chief executive Alan Joyce. “We are taking additional steps to get back to our best, which have been shaped by feedback from our frontline teams who are doing a phenomenal job under tough circumstances. Bringing our operations back to pre-COVID-19 standard and maintaining our focus on safety is our absolute priority.”<br/>